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James Zogby
Dr. James J. Zogby is founder of Zogby International as well as founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community. Founding AAI in 1985, Zogby and his organization have worked to ensure political rights for the Arab American community in the U.S. In 1993, Vice President Al Gore invited Zogby to head Builder for Peace, which seeks to promote U.S. business and investment interests in the West Bank and Gaza. Zogby is also co-founder and chairman of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, established in the late 1970s. He was also co-founder and Executive Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. In 1982, he co-founded Save Lebanon, Inc., a non-profit, humanitarian relief organization which funds health care for Palestinian and Lebanese victims of war. Since 1996, Zogby has polled for Reuters News Agency, the largest news agency in the world, and in 2000 polled for NBC News, the network news watched by most Americans. His clients also include MSNBC, the New York Post, Fox News, Gannett News Service, the Albany Times Union, the Buffalo News, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the Cincinnati Post, the Cleveland Plain Dealer, the Toledo Blade, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, the Syracuse Herald, and nearly every daily newspaper in New York State, as well as television stations throughout the U.S. He has been praised as "the most accurate pollster" (Seattle Post Intelligencer, Cleveland Plain Dealer, USA Today), "respected" and "pioneering" (Albany Times Union), "the pace setter in the polling business" (New York Post), and "the big winner in 1996" (Campaigns and Elections, L. Brent Bozell, and the O'Leary/Kamber Report). Zogby regularly appears on all three nightly network news programs plus NBC's "Today Show," ABC's "Good Morning America" and is a frequent guest for Fox News and MSNBC special programs, along with CNBC's "Hardball with Chris Matthews." He also is a regular political commentator for Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the British Broadcasting Corporation. His analytical expertise has been published on the opinion pages of the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Newsday and the Boston Globe. He has also distinguished himself in Canada where he alone called the popular vote victory of the Liberals over the Parti Quebecois in the Quebec election of 1998. He was the first pollster to see a victory for Vicente Fox in the 2000 Mexican election, and triumphed in the 2001 Israeli election being the only pollster to call the 26-point margin victory of defense minister, Ariel Sharon. Zogby further distinguished himself by polling the Iran Presidential election closer than even the Iran News Agency. Zogby holds degrees in history from Le Moyne College and Syracuse University. He has taught history and political science at the State University of New York, Utica College, and at Hamilton College's Arthur Levitt Public Affairs Center. In addition he is a member of the Board of Trustees of Le Moyne College. He received the distinguished Alumni Award in June 2000. Zogby is also a Senior Associate of Global Affairs of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Maxwell School at Syracuse University and a distinguished visitor at Colgate University. He also serves on the Advisory Council for Biotechnology for the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He has polled, researched and consulted for a wide spectrum of business media, government, and political groups including Coca Cola, Microsoft, CISCO Systems, Philip Morris, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, MCI, Reuters America, and the United States Census Bureau since 1984. Zogby has polled extensively throughout the world, including influencers from 6 African nations and a number of countries in Latin America. Zogby's extensive polling in the Arab World includes the recently released 10-nation survey (6 Arab, 3 Muslim non-Arab, 1 European, and 1 Latin American) measuring public opinion about Americans and American culture. Other notable polling in the region includes the Arab World Information Technology poll conducted in Cairo, Egypt. Public Diplomacy As founder of Zogby International, the polling agency has been tracking public opinion since 1984 in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Europe. In 2001, Zogby delivered What Ethnic Americans Really Think, in which a series of "Culture Polls" studies reveal the findings of separate surveys of six major American ethnic groups: Hispanic Americans, Italian Americans, African Americans, Jewish Americans, Arab Americans and Asian Pacific Americans. The work’s discoveries indicate a surprise in past beliefs regarding most ethnic groups in America. While past beliefs often suggested most ethnic groups were socially liberal and fiscally conservative, the study shows instead that these groups tend to be much more socially conservative, yet fiscally liberal. Publications, Articles, and Commentary *Albright’s Take on Religion and Politics posetd by James Zogby. AAI June 5, 2006. *What Arabs Think: Values, Beliefs and Concerns by James Zogby. Zogby International 2002. *What Ethnic Americans Really Think by James Zogby. Zogby International 2001. Resources * Zogby International Polling * Arab American Institute Biography PbWinter 14:37, 5 Jun 2006 (PDT)